The Arkansaw traveler., 1887-10-15
Camping Out. Forest and Stream,

Forest and Stream.
 Stamping out" is for the most part becoming merely name ter moving out of ones permanent habitation and dwelling for few weeks in a we'll built lodge, smaller, perhaps, than ones home, but as comfortable and almost as convenient; with tables, chairs and crockery, carpets And cur tains, beds, with sheets and blankets on r0ai SoSasteS3s, 6 stove aRd its fsiii outfit of cooking utensils, wherefiOm meals are served in the regular ways of civilization. And so, living in nearly the same fashion of his ordi- nary life, except that he wears fisn- nel shirt and a slouch hat, and perhaps fishes 6 little and loafs moro than Is his ordinary custom, our "camper" imagines that he is getting quite close to the primitive ways of hunters and trappers, that he Is living their life wiih nothing hacking but tine rough edges, which he has ingeniously smoothed away. But he Is mistaken. In ridding himself of some of its dis comforts he has lost a great deal of the best of real camp life, tho spice of small adventure, and the woodsy flavor that its half hardshifts and makeshift appliances give 1t. If one sleeps n little cold under his one blanket on his bed of evergreen twigs, though he does not take cold, he realizes In some degree the discomfort of Boone's bivouac when he cuddled behind his hounds to keep from freezing --and feels slightly heroic. His slum- bers are seasoned with dreams of tho wild woods, as the balsamic perfume of his couch steals into his nostrils :; his companions snorcs invade his drowsy senses as the growl of bcars, and the thunderous whirr of grouse bursting out of untrodden thickets When he awakes in the gray of early morning he finds that the few hours of sleep have wrought miracle of rest, and he feels himself nearer to na- ture when he washes his face In the brook, than when he rinses off his sleepiness in bowl or basin. The wa ter of the spring Is colder and has n finer flavor when he drinks 1t from a birch bark cup of his own making Tea made ina frying pan has an aroma never known to such poor mortals as brew their tea In teapot, and no mill ever ground such coffee as that which is tied up in rag and pounded with a stone or hatchct- head. A sharpencd stick for fork gives zest to the bit of pork "frizzlcd" on as rude a spit and battered on clean chip or sheet of bark, and no fish was ever more toothsome than when broilcd on n gridiron improvised of green wands, or roasted Indian fashion, in cleft stick.
 What can make amends for tl.e loss of the camp fire, with innumerablc pictures glowing and shifting In its heart and conjuring strange shapes out of the surrounding gloom, and sug gesting unseen mysteries that the cir cle of darkness holds behind its rim?
 How are the wells of conversation to be thawed out by black stove, so that tales of hunters and fishers craft and adventure shall flow till the lncisuTc ot uIhu Ueiici is OVcTfuHs How is the congenial spark of true companionshlp to be kindled when people brood around stove and light their pipes with matches, and not with coals snatched out of the camp fires edge, or with twigs that burn briefly with mfiiing iiamcl
 Yet, let 1t be understood that make believe camping Is better than no camping. It cannot but bring peo- pie into more intimate relations with nature than they would be if they stayed at home, and so to better ac- quaintance with and greater interest in the mother who deals so impar- tially with all her children.